Winds of Change

Winds of Change

By Samuel HumeSociety & CultureDocumentaryHistory
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Winds of Change episodes

  • S1.E8 - Blood and Dust: Amritsar, 1919

    With the end of the First World War, India has been promised reform and some form of self government. As the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms are drafted, hardliners within the Government of India write their own law: the Rowlatt Act. Protests erupt across India, mostly peaceful but some violent, and in the Punjab city of Amritsar the British panic. Echoes of the 1857 Mutiny loom large in Anglo-Indian minds, and Brigadier General Reginald Dyer arrives in the city to crush this "rebellion" at Jallianwala Bagh.


    Thank you to my expert contributors:

    • Kim Wagner, Professor of Global and Imperial History and author of Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre
    • Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935

      Thank you to my guest Zack Twamley, host of When Diplomacy Fails.

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      1 hr
    • S1.E7 - The War to End All Wars

      The British Empire goes to war, and India is taken along with it. Hundreds of thousands of Indians are part of the war effort all over the world, and Indian nationalists and British liberals hope this display of loyalty will be rewarded. Indian revolutionaries are not prepared to wait for freedom to come to India, and plot a 2nd Indian Mutiny. The Imperial War Cabinet and the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms offer some concessions, but the Rowlatt Commission is hard at work.


      Thank you to my guest historians:

      • Sam Dalrymple, author of Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Reshaping of Modern Asia (2025)
      • Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)
      • Vineet Thakur, Assistant Professor at Universiteit Leiden, and author of V.S. Srinivasa Sastri: A Liberal Life. (London: Routledge, 2023)
      • Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor at Tufts University, and author of The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985)
      • Kim Wagner, Professor of Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies, and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Witney: Peter Lang, 2010)


        • Thank you to my guest voice actor, Wesley Livesay, host of The History of the Great War and The History of the Second World War podcasts.


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        1 hr 52 min
      • S1.E6 - Reform or Revolution

        Indian Nationalists split into Moderates and Radicals, as British Viceroys dodge bombs.

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        Thank you to my guest historians:

        • Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)
        • Vineet Thakur, Assistant Professor at Universiteit Leiden, and author of V.S. Srinivasa Sastri: A Liberal Life. (London: Routledge, 2023)
        • Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor at Tufts University, and author of The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985)
        • Peter Heehs, historian living in Pondicherry, India, and author of The Bomb in Bengal: The Rise of Revolutionary Terrorism in India, 1900-1910 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993)


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          1 hr
        • S1.E5 - Victorian Holocaust

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          Thank you to my guest historians:

          • Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)
          • Janam Mukherjee, Associate Professor of History at Toronto Metropolitan University, and author of Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire (Hurst, 2015)
          • Tanroop Sandhu, PhD Candidate at Queen Mary University of London, and author of 'Interwar India through Bhimrao Ambedkar’s Eyes', Canadian Journal of History, 2021.
          • Joanna Simonow, Assistant Professor at Universität Heidelberg (Heidelberg University), and author of Ending Famine in India: A Transnationalk History of Food Aid and Development, c. 1890-1950 (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2023)


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            53 min
          • S1.E4 - Two Empires in One Grave

            British retaliation for the massacres and mutinies of 1857 is immediate and brutal. Mass executions of Indian prisoners and civilians follow the armies of reconquest, with only minimal interest in whether any of them were guilty. The leaders of the rebellion - Nana Sahib, the Rani of Jhansi, Tatya Tope, and the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah - are defeated, driven into exile, or killed in battle. But the East India Company does not survive either. The government of Queen Victoria dissolves its Indian Empire, and takes it under direct royal control as a crown colony - the British Raj.

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            Thank you to my guest historians:

            • Christina Welsch, Assistant Professor of History at the College of Wooster, and author of The Company's Sword: The East India Company and the Politics of Militarism, 1644-1858 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022)
            • Kim Wagner, Professor of Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies, and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Witney: Peter Lang, 2010)
            • Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)
            • Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Chancellor and Professor of History at Ashoka University, and author of Awadh in Revolt, 1857-58: A Study of Popular Resistance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985)
            • Benjamin R. Siegel, Associate Professor of History at Boston University, and author of Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
            • Joanna Simonow, Assistant Professor at Universität Heidelberg (Heidelberg University), and author of Ending Famine in India: A Transnationalk History of Food Aid and Development, c. 1890-1950 (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2023)

              • Thank you to my guest voice actors:

              • Bry Jensen, co-host of Pontifacts.


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              1 hr 5 min
            • S1.E3 - The Sepoy Mutiny and Indian Uprising

              The Indian Mutiny. The War of Indian Independence. The Indian Uprising. Three names for a conflict which begins in Meerut in May 1857, and ends eighteen months later. After months of growing tension betweent the Indian sepoys and their European officers, full of miscommunication, assumptions, and mutual suspicion, the sepoys mutiny at Meerut, killing their officers and marching on Delhi.


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              Thank you to my guest historians:

              • Christina Welsch, Assistant Professor of History at the College of Wooster, and author of The Company's Sword: The East India Company and the Politics of Militarism, 1644-1858 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022)
              • Kim Wagner, Professor of Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies, and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Witney: Peter Lang, 2010)
              • Mark Condos, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at King's College London, and author of The Insecurity State: Punjab and the Making of Colonial Power in British India, 1849-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)
              • Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Chancellor and Professor of History at Ashoka University, and author of Awadh in Revolt, 1857-58: A Study of Popular Resistance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985)

                • Thank you to my guest voice actors:

                • Bruce Carlson, host of My History Can Beat Up Your Politics.


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                1 hr 5 min
              • S1.E2 - Hostile Takeover

                After the death of Aurangzeb, the United East India Company benefitted from the political chaos of 18th century India. Allying with, fighting against, and eventually dominating the Nawabs of Bengal and Arcot, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy, and the Sultans of Mysore. At the Battles of Plassey and Buxar, Company generals like Sir Robert Clive asserted British authority over massive territories, and the Carnatic Wars hobbled their European rivals. The upheaval and priorities of Company rule had disastrous consequences in the Great Bengal Famine, which killed millions. In Britain, the Company increasingly came under government scrutiny with the Regulating Acts, and the impeachment of Warren Hastings by Edmund Burke. The Cornwallis Code, or Permanent Settlement, transformed the powers of landowners.


                The British Empire in India was on the rise, but what goes up must come down.


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                Thank you to my guest historians:

                • Philip J. Stern, Professor of History at Duke, and author of The Company-State: Corporate Sovereignty and the Early Modern Foundations of the British Empire in India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) and Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations that built British Colonialism (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2023).
                • Jon Wilson, Professor of Modern History at King’s College, London, and author of India Conquered: Britain's Raj and the Chaos of Empire (London: Simon & Schuster, 2016)
                • Rupali Mishra, Associate Professor of History at Auburn University, and author of A Business of State: Commerce, Politics, and the Birth of the East India Company (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2018)
                • Benjamin R. Siegel, Associate Professor of History at Boston University, and author of Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018)
                • Christina Welsch, Assistant Professor of History at the College of Wooster, and author of The Company's Sword: The East India Company and the Politics of Militarism, 1644-1858 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022)

                  • Thank you to my guest voice actors:

                  • Robin Pierson, host of the History of Byzantium Podcast.
                  • David Crowther, host of the History of England Podcast


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                    1 hr 5 min
                  • S1.E1 - The East India Company

                    From its first voyage in 1600, the English East India Company built up factories, outposts, and colonies all across the Indian Ocean world. After being chased out of the Spice Islands by the Dutch in the Amboyna Massacre, the Company focused in Asia. From strongholds in Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, the East India Company expanded its influence. Throughout the 17th century, the Company faced an implacable Mughal Empire, and Emperor Aurangzeb was a formidable conqueror. But his death at the beginning of the 18th century opened up new opportunities for his vassals, and for the Company.

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                    Thank you to my guest historians:

                    • Philip J. Stern, Professor of History at Duke, and author of The Company-State and Empire, Incorporated.
                    • Jon Wilson, Professor of Modern History at King’s College, London, and author of India Conquered
                    • Rupali Mishra, Associate Professor of History at Auburn University, and author of A Business of State

                      • Thank you to my guest voice actor:

                      • Matt Breen, host of the Explorer's Podcast


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                      1 hr 6 min
                    • Winds of Change Season 1 - British India

                      From the East India Company to the "Mutiny" of 1857, through the World Wars, to Independence and Partition, Winds of Change will cover the whole history of the Indian freedom struggle. With the help of expert historians, we will learn how the British Empire in India rose and fell. We will cover the lives of major figures in this cause, such as Nehru, Jinnah, Ambedkar and, of course, Gandhi, and the rainbow of political, religious, and ethnic agendas which fall under the umbrella of "Indian Independence".

                      New episodes every Monday!

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                      3 min

                    About Winds of Change

                    From the publisher's feed

                    The Sun Never Set on the British Empire... until it did. Dr Samuel Hume explores the history of Indian Independence with captivating narrative and joined by expert guests. If you love learning about…